Lucky the rabbit is living up to her name, no thanks to her college- bound owner, who with his friends is accused of taping her to a powerful explosive and tossing her into a Castro Valley lake.

Luckily for Lucky, nothing blew up and her owner fished her out of the water because, he told The Chronicle, he didn't want her to drown.

But that didn't impress Alameda County prosecutors, who charged Nick Sigmon, an 18-year-old lifeguard at Lake Don Castro, and fellow lifeguard Paul Collins, 20, of Castro Valley with misdemeanor animal cruelty on Wednesday. Two other people present during the July 13 incident may also face charges.

"I think that a lot of people are judging us without knowing us at all," Sigmon said. "It's really bothering me."

Collins declined to comment Wednesday.

Sigmon said he adopted Lucky after he nearly ran over her with his Acura Integra as she hopped across a San Leandro street just after Easter. He's headed to UC Santa Barbara this fall -- to study biology -- and said he simply can't care for Lucky anymore.

Asked why the group decided to tape an illegal M-1000 -- a huge firecracker equivalent to a quarter of a stick of dynamite -- to the animal, Sigmon replied, "Um, that's a real tough question to answer."

Their downfall came when one of them snapped photos of their alleged deeds and posted them on his Web log, an online diary of sorts. Because nothing on the Internet remains a secret for long, someone who happened upon the photos posted them on Craigslist, the hugely popular bulletin board where people post jobs, sell stuff and look for dates.

"I think it's a real tragedy, and I think that any kind of abuse to any animal, whether it's a rabbit or anything else, is simply inexcusable," Williams said Wednesday. Williams said she urged prosecutors to file felony charges.

But Deputy District Attorney Steve Dal Porto said the two men face misdemeanor charges at most because neither has a criminal history and Lucky escaped injury. Complicating matters was the fact that Sigmon "jumps in and rescues it when he sees it's about to drown," Dal Porto said. This, after Sigmon was "willing to blow the animal up," the prosecutor said.

After a traumatized and wet Lucky was pulled from Lake Don Castro, the suspects debated relighting the fuse but decided against it, Dal Porto said. Ian Frazier, the East Bay Regional Park Police detective who investigated the case, said he had no idea what the young men were thinking.

"We really don't know," Frazier said. "We just know the act itself took place and, unfortunately, motives for crimes like this are difficult to explain at best."

But Mark Sigmon, 44, said his son saved four lives at the lake last summer and shouldn't be judged harshly. And Nick Sigmon apologized for embarrassing the park district.

"I just regret making lifeguards look this way," he said. "We're expected to be professional."

Nick Sigmon added, "(Lucky) never started to sink, but we could tell she was getting tired. She would swim, go for a while and have to float. She floated pretty well."

Lucky is recovering nicely at the East Bay home of a foster owner who didn't want it known where she lives because there were explosives involved in the case. Lucky is munching away on hay pellets and doing well, Williams said.

"She's actually in relatively good condition physically," Williams said. "She's even managed to retain her trust in people."